In October when my campus have it's birthday celebration, biology presentations were held in my campus...one of the topic is like this: "the use of microorganisms in degrading LAS [Surphactant Biodegrable] in the river".
The presentator said that he can turn the LAS which is a pollutant into a group of undangerous substances such as phosphate, nitrogen, etc...in the river.What I wanna ask is, do you agree with that method? because As far as I think, too much different in nitrogen substances level in the river will affect the fish's respiration system such as bends. What do you think??

Q: Why are chemists great for solving problems?
A: They have all the solutions.

And in a river accumulation is not a problem, since the flow of water will keep washing away the excess phosphates, so except in case of really huge concentration, the fish could probably survive that. Of course it could be a problem further down stream in lakes or even the sea if the amount are really large.

Patrick

Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without
any proof. (Ashley Montague)

Well, if it will be run i guess that the concentration is not that dangerous. Remember, within certain concentrations, nitrogen is good for some organisms. Plants, for example, grow better with added nitrogen

"As a biologist, I firmly believe that when you're dead, you're dead. Except for what you live behind in history. That's the only afterlife" - J. Craig Venter

hei, i do not know about that(my be i miss that, i do not read the announcement). but, some industries are already to recycle their waste into undangereous subtances. (sorry). now Indonesia, i think, is give more attention on this, espesially the people near those industries. hei, i think most of industries in indonesia now has this technique- using microorganism to decomposition the waste, so that it won't distrub the ecosystem.

Yup, you're right Baikuza..everyone who are 2005 students missed that event except me... They use microbes to degradate the waste, still proper...but the product results from the microbes' degradation is also polluting the water ecosystem, that's improper....

Q: Why are chemists great for solving problems?
A: They have all the solutions.

His method passes AMDAL or analysis to detect the effect of such activity on environment, means that his method is acceptable due to the environment pollution and harmful agents, thus he can pulish his method and apply it soon.